His friend approached from the back and marveled at the cartoon character on his left shoulder. The dark spiky hair, the whittle powder face, the black almond eyes, the purple slit that formed a mouth and the bolt of lightning that crashed through the right eye. He knew that face because he knew his friend. His friend had described him 1,000 times to him since the winter if 2014. Now here halfway thru their 40th year he wore it on his back like a badge of honor. A face that invoked fear and questions and that so few understood the meaning of it. He did though. Had they not been KA-babies together? They had been friends since their 9th name day was it not. Had their friendship not survived junior high, Geckler, freshman year roommates, and the time and space of adulthood? Yes. It had. He knew firsthand the dual nature of his friend. The high man and the low man, he knew his friend was a junky, and a depressant. Or had been? Do those things ever really heal? Or do you learn how to live with them?
What he knew for sure is the man in front of him had learned to not live but thrive with them. What was the final tally? Wasn’t it 247 lbs. in two years? Looking at his back you'd never had known. It was sculpted by the gods themselves. It was perfect.
Suddenly his friend took a large breath in and his arms shot out to either side palms up towards the sun. His head tilted up and his hair fell across his back covering that reaper. Now the only tattoos he could see where that funny symbol from the east that he said meant believe and the sun. That where painted on his right and left shoulder respectively.
What had Katie said he was out here doing? Drinking the sun? He saw it now in the upward tilted face. He open and closed his mouth and swallowed as if he was literally drinking the sun. He would go-around and sit at the pool. He didn't want to disturb this ritual or was it meditation? It was something like that. His friend was always a bit different and to each their own. It made him happy enough to take care of himself. That's all that mattered! He remembered getting the email that was of this vision and a link to a blog too. There were too many to go back to read them all. His friend was in the middle of a change. He realized that it was time to grow up, follow his heart, and be good to himself. He had been writing ever since. Katie loved all his writing. He didn't read much of it, just had the wife paraphrase it for him. He just didn't read much. It was nothing against this old friend or his work. Did he have three novels now? Maybe it was two.
Katie and he met him up in Nashville two days past and they went with him to give his speech at UT. He said it was his tenth speech this year and it was by far his best. He was getting a nice fee going around speaking about the benefits of eating natural foods and lots of veggies. About being true to yourself and what you love. About setting your mind to do something and you could do it. The message was powerful. He never knew the Kid could speak like that. Poog would have been impressed, hell he was. His words came from his heart and from his soul. He spoke much of being the Black Reaper and the rising out of the ashes. Coming above and beyond all his fears and hate, because that what his mind was set to do.
He looked at his friend. Still arms spread out and his legs crossed Indian style. His goatee only covered his chin. No mustache and his side burns were trimmed. It was good to see that face he knew as a boy. Not hidden by the beard anymore. Well this face was harder than the face he knew as a boy, thinner too. It was a face of a man who had a mission. He couldn't help but look at his friend’s chest. It was too seemed to be chiseled from marble. Fuck his abs where hard too. This couldn't be his friend could it? He was always bigger than everyone, he was the husky one. Not now the roles had reversed. He couldn't help but be proud of his friend.
Without really thinking he packed his chew. And it snapped his friend out of his ritual. He picked up his Oakley's and put them on. He stood up and picked up his towel and walked over. He hadn't noticed last night how huge his legs where. When he had talked about his power coming from his legs last night he hadn't really thought about it. The Kid always did have thunder thighs but this was ridiculous. I guess carrying around 470 lbs really was a workout in its own right. Katie had said he looked fucking good, and he did. If he didn't know how determined his old friend could be he'd say it was unreal.
However, finally putting his obsessive mind to work for him and that had changed everything. How did he say it? He had risen? He could rise above anything? That he transformed via his mind and soul. Sounded like new age bs but he saw the results in front of him. Fuck his brown hair was sun washed and long. He looked like a freaking surfer.
"I told Katie to tell you to grab me when you got home." The Kid said.
"We didn't want to disturb you. You looked well peaceful. It looks good on you!"
"Thanks brother!"
"Can I ask you something what do you see when you do that?"
The Kid giggled. Shook his head and reached onto the table picked up his water and sipped. "Do you really want to know?"
"Asked didn't I?"
"First I see me as I want to be. Doing what I love to do and being good at it. Then I picture each part of my body being the right shape, the right tan, the right everything. I see it and I fix it in my mind. Then I let the sun burn it into my mind and soul. The rest don't matter."
"Ya it does. The last time you was here you were running from something. Something about love and all the wrong reasons. I see you now and you are free. Freer than anyone I know. So, how do you do that?"
"I just see it. What I want to be. What I want to write. What I am. What I'm not. You are right. I let her go a long time ago. The stars weren't right then. Maybe they never will be. I'm not running this time. I'm rising! I'm complete, I'm one. One man not two and I don't need her, or anyone else to feel that way. I am free because I choose to be. I choose to be true. To my heart and my mind."
"Still haven't told me what you see though. What did you see over there on my patio? You talked about your process last night. Now I want to know what you saw. Tell me the stories that rattle in your risen mind. Go on now close your eyes and tell me what you see. Line when we was boys and in college."
The kid smiled. His half smile. The one in which only his left lip curled up. He took off his sunglasses and closed his eyes and began to breathe in and out. He remembered this game as kids and he loved it!
"Come on what do you see right now?"
"Legions!"
"Legions of soldiers?"
"Yes and no. I see 10,000 strong. They are standing in ranks. They are men though. Not like we know. They are Methuselah. Legions upon legions of Methuselah."
"What the fuck is that?"
His friend laughed out loud. "God damned Tennessee red neck. Forgot you can't use big words south of the Mason Dixie Line."
"You liberal pretty man, just fucking tell me. Is that one of them terrorists or something?"
"NO! They are vampires you idiot, legions of them and they armed with katana blades and ready for war. These aren't any soldiers though. No they are the Knights if the Ajnin! They are the sworn protectors of the Empress of the Methuselah. The one who leads in the absence of the day walker and Aja. But wait. These knights are on the run."
"The run? From what? What's an Aja? Day walker?"
"Shut up. They are out of place. They aren't in the empire, but with the High Counsel of the Hemog. That makes no sense. Unless? The 12 have risen and started to march across the empire!!"
"The twelve?"
"Yes the twelve. Twelve vampires that committed such awful acts upon their own kind, Hemog's, and men a like that they were doomed to die by the hand of the Empire. It's forbidden to kill another vampire. You would do it. There the punishment is supreme."
"Wait. Look at me."
The kid opened his eyes and locked eyes with his old friend. His friend was impressed. The life that was going on in those eyes. The fire. "Ya I guess you did. You gonna write that?"
"Ya just as soon as vampire’s don't suck anymore and are all pretty boys going to high school. Fucking Twilight."
They looked at each other and laughed for a while after that.
He sat back as his friend stood up and dove into the pool and started to swim a few laps and cool off. He'd probably go get his suite soon. Then have Katie start the grill.
However he decided sit and watch this man who had once been a boy he grew up with. A conflicted troubled boy who was always so dependent and needing of approval, that man was gone. That wasn’t this man. No this man was over it. This man had risen. This man was the Black Reaper Risen!
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